Cohort study finds decreased incidence of fracture in osteoporosis patients treated with traditional Chinese medicine

In this nationwide, population-based cohort study, researchers from China Medical University in Taiwan investigated the potential of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to decrease the rate of osteoporotic fracture. The results of their study were published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

• The researchers identified osteoporosis cases and selected a comparison group that was frequency-matched according to sex, age (per five?years), diagnosis year of osteoporosis, and index year.
• They estimated the difference between the two groups in terms of the development of fracture using the Kaplan–Meier method and the log-rank test.
• The patients reported using either single herbs or formulas that contained multiple herbs.
• After the insertion of age, gender, urbanization level, and comorbidities into the Cox’s proportional hazard model, the researchers found that the patients who used TCM had a lower hazard ratio of fracture compared to those who did not use TCM.
• Based on the Kaplan-Meier curves, they also reported that osteoporosis patients who used TCM had a lower incidence of fracture events than those who did not.
• In addition, the researchers observed that patients who used TCM for a longer period also had lower fracture rates.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that TCM might have a positive impact on the prevention of osteoporotic fracture.

Read the full study at this link.

Journal Reference:

Wang YC, Chiang JH, Hsu HC, Tsai CH. DECREASED FRACTURE INCIDENCE WITH TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE THERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH OSTEOPOROSIS: A NATIONWIDE POPULATION-BASED COHORT STUDY. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 04 February 2019;19(1). DOI: 10.1186/s12906-019-2446-3